1.
1640
–
As of the start of 1640, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. February 9 – Ibrahim I succeeds Murad IV as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, march 8–13 – Siege of Galle, Dutch troops take the strategic fortress at Galle on Sri Lanka from the Portuguese. April 13 – The Short Parliament assembles as King Charles I of England attempts to fund the second of the Bishops Wars, may 5 – The Short Parliament is dissolved. May 22 – Catalan Revolt breaks out in Catalonia, august 9 – Forty-one Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded. August 20 – Second Bishops War, A Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland in England, august 28 – Second Bishops War, Battle of Newburn – The Scottish Covenanter army led by Alexander Leslie defeats the English army near Newburn in England. September – Sebastien Manrique reaches Dhaka, october 26 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between the Scottish Covenanters and Charles I of England. November 3 – The English Long Parliament is summoned, the Spanish Habsburgs do not recognize Portugals new dynasty, the House of Braganza, until the end of the Portuguese Restoration War in 1668. Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg starts to rule, the first university in Finland, the Academy of Åbo, is founded in Turku. The first book to be printed in North America is published, the first known European coffeehouse opens in Venice. Carlisle Cullen is said to be born in 1640 in the worldwide famous, Twilight Saga

2.
1642
–
As of the start of 1642, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 4 – First English Civil War, Charles I attempts to arrest 6 leading members of the Long Parliament, march 1 – Georgeana, Massachusetts becomes the first incorporated city in America. March 19 – the citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship, close the town gates, april 8 – George Spencer is executed by the New Haven Colony for alleged bestiality. May 1 – honours granted by Charles I from this date onward are retrospectively annulled by Parliament. May 17 – foundation of Ville-Marie, later renamed Montreal, as a permanent settlement July – First English Civil War, august 4 – Lord Forbes relieves Forthill and besieges Galway. August 21 – First Battle of Lostwithiel, august 22 – King Charles I raises the royal battle standard over Nottingham Castle, so declaring war on his own Parliament. September 2 – Parliament orders the theatres of London closed, effectively ending the era of English Renaissance theatre, september 7 – Lord Forbes raises his unsuccessful siege of Galway. September 8 – Thomas Granger is executed by hanging at Plymouth, october 23 – First English Civil War – Battle of Edgehill, Royalists and Parliamentarians battle to a draw. November 13 – First English Civil War – Battle of Turnham Green, The Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army, november 24 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemens Land. December 13 – Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand, the Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan. The village of Bro in Sweden is granted the city rights for the time and takes the name Kristinehamn after the then Swedish monarch. Rembrandt finishes his painting The Night Watch, the Manchu under their leader Hong Taiji raid the Ming Chinese province of Shandong from their base in Manchuria. Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, isaac Aboab da Fonseca is appointed rabbi in Pernambuco, Brazil, thus becoming the first rabbi of the Americas

3.
1640s
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February 9 – Ibrahim I succeeds Murad IV as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. March 8–13 – Siege of Galle, Dutch troops take the fortress at Galle on Sri Lanka from the Portuguese. April 13 – The Short Parliament assembles as King Charles I of England attempts to fund the second of the Bishops Wars, may 5 – The Short Parliament is dissolved. May 22 – Catalan Revolt breaks out in Catalonia, august 9 – Forty-one Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded. August 20 – Second Bishops War, A Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland in England, august 28 – Second Bishops War, Battle of Newburn – The Scottish Covenanter army led by Alexander Leslie defeats the English army near Newburn in England. September – Sebastien Manrique reaches Dhaka, october 26 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between the Scottish Covenanters and Charles I of England. November 3 – The English Long Parliament is summoned, the Spanish Habsburgs do not recognize Portugals new dynasty, the House of Braganza, until the end of the Portuguese Restoration War in 1668. Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg starts to rule, the first university in Finland, the Academy of Åbo, is founded in Turku. The first book to be printed in North America is published, the first known European coffeehouse opens in Venice. January 4 – Major eruption of the stratovolcano Mount Parker, january 18 – Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic. February 16 – King Charles I of England gives his assent to the Triennial Act, July 5 The Norwegian city of Kristiansand is founded by King Christian IV of Denmark. In England, the Long Parliament abolishes the Court of Star Chamber, July 12 – Portugal and the Dutch Republic sign a Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance at The Hague. The treaty is not respected by both parties and as a consequence has no effect in the Portuguese colonies that are under Dutch rule, august 10 – Charles I of England flees London for the north. October 23 – Irish Rebellion of 1641 breaks out, Irish Catholic gentry, chiefly in Ulster, revolt against the English administration, october 24 – The Irish rebel Sir Felim ONeill of Kinard issues the Proclamation of Dungannon. November 4 – Battle of Cape St Vincent, A Dutch fleet, with Michiel de Ruyter as third in command, November 22 – The Long Parliament of England passes the Grand Remonstrance, part of a series of legislation designed to contain Charles Is absolutist tendencies. The Dutch found a colony on Dejima, near Nagasaki. Portugal is ousted from Malacca by the Dutch, moses Amyrauts De lelevation de la foy et de labaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion is published. René Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy is originally published, the town of Falun in Sweden is given city rights by Queen Kristina

4.
1650s
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April 27 – Battle of Carbisdale, A Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands but is defeated by a Covenanter army. May – The New Model Army is decimated at the Siege of Clonmel, june 9 – The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established. June 23 – Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, august 23 – Colonel George Monck forms Moncks Regiment of Foot, forerunner of the Coldstream Guards. September 3 – Third English Civil War, Battle of Dunbar, september 27 – The Kolumbo volcano on Santorini experiences a massive eruption. September 29 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters in Threadneedle Street, november 4 – William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange the moment of his birth, succeeding his father who had died a few days earlier. He doesnt become stadtholder, so the United Provinces becomes a true republic, December 25 – Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Greshams School, England, is hanged as a Royalist rebel. The first modern Palio horserace is held in Siena, puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn. Captain James Hind makes an attempt to seize power in England. Jews are allowed to return to France and England, cafés begin to become popular in Europe. Three-wheeled wheelchairs are invented in Nuremberg by watchmaker Stephan Farffler, ann Greene, who had been hanged for infanticide in Oxford wakes up on an autopsy table, she is pardoned. Ethiopia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries, einkommende Zeitungen becomes the first German newspaper. The town of Sharon, Massachusetts is founded, estimation, Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing. Jan Antonín Losy, Czech lutist is born, january 1 – Charles II is crowned King of Scots at Scone. February 22 – St. Peters Flood – First storm tide in the North Sea strikes the coast of Germany, the island of Juist is split in half and the western half of Buise is probably washed away. March 4–5 – St. Peters Flood – Another storm tide in the North Sea strikes the Netherlands, september 3 – English Civil War – Battle of Worcester, the future King Charles II of England is defeated in the last major battle of the war. October – An English diplomatic team headed by Oliver St John goes to The Hague to negotiate an alliance between the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic, october 14 – Laws are passed in Massachusetts forbidding poor people from adopting excessive styles of dress. October 15–16 – Escape of Charles II from England to France, December 17 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders. The Keian Uprising fails in Japan, madanmohan-jiu Temple built at Samta, a village in the Howrah district of West Bengal

5.
16th century
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The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1500 and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600. It is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of the West occurred, during the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored the worlds seas and opened worldwide oceanic trade routes. In Europe, the Protestant Reformation gave a blow to the authority of the papacy. European politics became dominated by conflicts, with the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years War being laid towards the end of the century. In Italy, Luca Pacioli published the first work ever on accounting, in United Kingdom, the Italian Alberico Gentili wrote the first book on public international law and divided secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology. In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire continued to expand, with the Sultan taking the title of Caliph, China evacuated the coastal areas, because of Japanese piracy. Japan was suffering a civil war at the time. Mughal Emperor Akbar extended the power of the Mughal Empire to cover most of the South Asian sub continent and his rule significantly influenced arts, and culture in the region. These events directly challenged the notion of an immutable universe supported by Ptolemy and Aristotle. Polybius The Histories translated into Italian, English, German and French, medallion rug, variant Star Ushak style, Anatolia, is made. It is now kept at The Saint Louis Art Museum,1500, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain was born. 1500, Guru Nanak the beginning and spreading of the 5th largest Religion in the World Sikhism,1500, Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón encounters Brazil but is prevented from claiming it by the Treaty of Tordesillas. 1500, Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal,1500, The Ottoman fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians at the Second Battle of Lepanto. 1501, Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue David,1501, Safavid dynasty reunified Iran and ruled over it until 1736. Safavids adopt a Shia branch of Islam,1502, First reported African slaves in The New World 1503, Foundation of the Sultanate of Sennar by Amara Dunqas, in what is modern Sudan 1503, Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola. Considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms,1503, Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and completes it three years later. 1503, Nostradamus was born on either December 14, or December 21,1504, A period of drought, with famine in all of Spain. 1504, Death of Isabella I of Castile, Joanna of Castille became the Queen,1505, Zhengde Emperor ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty

6.
17th century
–
The 17th century was the century that lasted from January 1,1601, to December 31,1700, in the Gregorian calendar. The greatest military conflicts were the Thirty Years War, the Great Turkish War, in the Islamic world, the Ottoman, Safavid Persian and Mughal empires grew in strength. In Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo period at the beginning of the century, European politics were dominated by the Kingdom of France of Louis XIV, where royal power was solidified domestically in the civil war of the Fronde. With domestic peace assured, Louis XIV caused the borders of France to be expanded and it was during this century that English monarch became a symbolic figurehead and Parliament was the dominant force in government – a contrast to most of Europe, in particular France. It was also a period of development of culture in general,1600, On February 17 Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake by the Inquisition. 1600, Michael the Brave unifies the three Romanian countries, Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania after the Battle of Șelimbăr from 1599. 1601, Battle of Kinsale, England defeats Irish and Spanish forces at the town of Kinsale, driving the Gaelic aristocracy out of Ireland and destroying the Gaelic clan system. 1601, Michael the Brave, voivode of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, is assassinated by the order of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta at Câmpia Turzii, 1601–1603, The Russian famine of 1601–1603 kills perhaps one-third of Russia. 1601, Panembahan Senopati, first king of Mataram, dies and passes rule to his son Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak 1601,1602, Matteo Ricci produces the Map of the Myriad Countries of the World, a world map that will be used throughout East Asia for centuries. 1602, The Portuguese send an expeditionary force from Malacca which succeeded in reimposing a degree of Portuguese control. 1602, The Dutch East India Company is established by merging competing Dutch trading companies and its success contributes to the Dutch Golden Age. 1602, Two emissaries from the Aceh Sultanate visit the Dutch Republic,1603, Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England. 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu takes the title of Shogun, establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate and this begins the Edo period, which will last until 1869. 1603–1623, After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands the Persian Empire by capturing territory from the Ottomans,1603, First permanent Dutch trading post is established in Banten, West Java. First successful VOC privateering raid on a Portuguese ship,1604, A second English East India Company voyage commanded by Sir Henry Middleton reaches Ternate, Tidore, Ambon and Banda. 1605, Gunpowder Plot failed in England,1605, The fortresses of Veszprém and Visegrad are retaken by the Ottomans. 1605, February, The VOC in alliance with Hitu prepare to attack a Portuguese fort in Ambon,1605, Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak of Mataram establishes control over Demak, former center of the Demak Sultanate. 1606, Treaty of Vienna ends anti-Habsburg uprising in Royal Hungary,1606, Assassination of Stephen Bocskay of Transylvania

7.
18th century
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The 18th century lasted from January 1,1701 to December 31,1800 in the Gregorian calendar. During the 18th century, the Enlightenment culminated in the French, philosophy and science increased in prominence. Philosophers dreamed of a brighter age and this dream turned into a reality with the French Revolution of 1789-, though later compromised by the excesses of the Reign of Terror under Maximilien Robespierre. At first, many monarchies of Europe embraced Enlightenment ideals, but with the French Revolution they feared losing their power, the Ottoman Empire experienced an unprecedented period of peace and economic expansion, taking part in no European wars from 1740 to 1768. The 18th century also marked the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as an independent state, the once-powerful and vast kingdom, which had once conquered Moscow and defeated great Ottoman armies, collapsed under numerous invasions. European colonization of the Americas and other parts of the world intensified and associated mass migrations of people grew in size as the Age of Sail continued. Great Britain became a major power worldwide with the defeat of France in North America in the 1760s, however, Britain lost many of its North American colonies after the American Revolution, which resulted in the formation of the newly independent United States of America. The Industrial Revolution started in Britain in the 1770s with the production of the steam engine. Despite its modest beginnings in the 18th century, steam-powered machinery would radically change human society, western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. To historians who expand the century to include larger historical movements, 1700-1721, Great Northern War between Tsarist Russia and the Swedish Empire. 1701, Kingdom of Prussia declared under King Frederick I,1701, Ashanti Empire is formed under Osei Kofi Tutu I. 1701–1714, The War of the Spanish Succession is fought, involving most of continental Europe, 1701–1702, The Daily Courant and The Norwich Post become the first daily newspapers in England. 1702, Forty-seven Ronin attack Kira Yoshinaka and then commit seppuku in Japan,1703, Saint Petersburg is founded by Peter the Great, it is the Russian capital until 1918. 1703–1711, The Rákóczi Uprising against the Habsburg Monarchy,1704, End of Japans Genroku period. 1704, First Javanese War of Succession,1705, George Frideric Handels first opera, Almira, premieres. 1706, War of the Spanish Succession, French troops defeated at the Battles of Ramilies,1706, The first English-language edition of the Arabian Nights is published. 1707, The Act of Union is passed, merging the Scottish and English Parliaments,1707, After Aurangzebs death, the Mughal Empire enters a long decline and the Maratha Empire slowly replaces it. 1707, Mount Fuji erupts in Japan for the first time since 1700,1707, War of 27 Years between the Marathas and Mughals ends in India

8.
1640s in architecture
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The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is under construction. The mosque and jawab in the complex are completed in 1643,1640 Børsen in Copenhagen, designed by Lorentz and Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger and begun in 1619, is completed. 59-60 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, probably designed by Inigo Jones,1641 Tron Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, designed by John Mylne, is dedicated. The Mauritshuis at The Hague in the Dutch Republic, designed by Jacob van Campen, 1645–1648 - Main structure of Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, is built. 1646 The St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, Dingli, Malta, is rebuilt after the chapel had collapsed. Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan, Persia, is completed,1647 - The Changdeokgung in Seoul, Korea, is reconstructed. 1648 - Jama Masjid, Agra, is built,1642 - Giovanni Barbara, Maltese architect and military engineer c

9.
John Aubrey
–
John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the Brief Lives and he was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, and who is particularly noted as the discoverer of the Avebury henge monument. The Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named after him, although there is doubt as to whether the holes that he observed are those that currently bear the name. He was also a pioneer folklorist, collecting together a miscellany of material on customs, traditions and he set out to compile county histories of both Wiltshire and Surrey, although both projects remained unfinished. His Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum was the first attempt to compile a full-length study of English place-names and he had wider interests in applied mathematics and astronomy, and was friendly with many of the greatest scientists of the day. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks largely to the popularity of Brief Lives, Aubrey was regarded as more than an entertaining but quirky, eccentric. Only in the 1970s did the full breadth and innovation of his begin to be more widely appreciated. He published little in his lifetime, and many of his most important manuscripts remain unpublished, or published only in partial and unsatisfactory form. Aubrey was born at Easton Piers or Percy, near Kington St Michael, Wiltshire, to a long-established and his grandfather, Isaac Lyte, lived at Lytes Cary Manor, Somerset, now owned by the National Trust. Richard Aubrey, his father, owned lands in Wiltshire and Herefordshire, for many years an only child, he was educated at home with a private tutor, he was melancholy in his solitude. His father was not intellectual, preferring field sports to learning, Aubrey read such books as came his way, including Bacons Essays, and studied geometry in secret. He was educated at the Malmesbury grammar school under Robert Latimer and he then studied at the grammar school at Blandford Forum, Dorset. He entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1642, but his studies were interrupted by the English Civil War and his earliest antiquarian work dates from this period in Oxford. In 1646 he became a student of the Middle Temple and he spent a pleasant time at Trinity in 1647, making friends among his Oxford contemporaries, and collecting books. He was to show Avebury to Charles II at the Kings request in 1663 and his father died in 1652, leaving Aubrey large estates, but with them some complicated debts. He claimed that his memory was not tenacious by 17th-century standards, but from the early 1640s he kept notes of observations in natural philosophy, his friends ideas. He also began to write Lives of scientists in the 1650s, in 1659 he was recruited to contribute to a collaborative county history of Wiltshire, leading to his unfinished collections on the antiquities and the natural history of the county. His erstwhile friend and fellow-antiquary Anthony Wood predicted that he would one day break his neck while running downstairs in haste to interview some retreating guest or other and he drank the Kings health in Interregnum Herefordshire, but with equal enthusiasm attended meetings in London of the republican Rota Club

10.
Megalith
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A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. The word megalithic describes structures made of large stones without the use of mortar or concrete. For later periods, the monolith, with an overlapping meaning, is more likely to be used. The word megalith comes from the Ancient Greek μέγας and λίθος, megalith also denotes an item consisting of rock hewn in definite shapes for special purposes. It has been used to describe buildings built by people from parts of the world living in many different periods. A variety of stones are seen as megaliths, with the most widely known megaliths not being sepulchral. The construction of these took place mainly in the Neolithic and continued into the Chalcolithic. At a number of sites in eastern Turkey, large ceremonial complexes from the 9th millennium BC have been discovered and they belong to the incipient phases of agriculture and animal husbandry. Large circular structures involving carved megalithic orthostats are a feature, e. g. at Nevalı Çori. Although these structures are the most ancient megalithic structures known so far, at Göbekli Tepe, four stone circles have been excavated from an estimated 20. Some measure up to 30 metres across, as well as human figures, the stones carry a variety of carved reliefs depicting boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions. Dolmens and standing stones have been found in areas of the Middle East starting at the Turkish border in the north of Syria close to Aleppo. They can be encountered in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, Jordan, the largest concentration can be found in southern Syria and along the Jordan Rift Valley, however they are being threatened with destruction. They date from the late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, megaliths have also been found on Kharg Island and pirazmian in Iran, at Barda Balka in Iraq, and at Jaintapur in Bangladesh. A semicircular arrangement of megaliths was found in Israel at Atlit Yam and it is a very early example, dating from the 7th millennium BC. The most concentrated occurrence of dolmens in particular is in an area on both sides of the Jordan Rift Valley, with greater predominance on the eastern side. They occur first and foremost on the Golan Heights, the Hauran, and in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia, only very few dolmen have been identified so far in the Hejaz. They seem, however, to re-emerge in Yemen in small numbers, the standing stone has a very ancient tradition in the Middle East, dating back from Mesopotamian times

11.
Avebury
–
Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of importance to contemporary pagans. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony, the Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill. By the Iron Age, the site had effectively abandoned. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley, however, took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust, at grid reference SU10266996, Avebury is respectively about 6 and 7 miles from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley which forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level, to the east are the Marlborough Downs. It is now listed as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury, the monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric peoples relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BCE. The change to an environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution, different species of snail live in specific habitats, so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time. The history of the site before the construction of the henge is uncertain, evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BCE is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. During this era, those living in Britain were hunter-gatherers, often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested the possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near to the southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post

12.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

13.
Athanasius Kircher
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Athanasius Kircher, S. J. was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath who published around 40 major works, most notably in the fields of comparative religion, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit Roger Boscovich and to Leonardo da Vinci for his enormous range of interests and he taught for more than forty years at the Roman College, where he set up a wunderkammer. A resurgence of interest in Kircher has occurred within the community in recent decades. Kircher claimed to have deciphered the writing of the ancient Egyptian language. He did, however, correctly establish the link between the ancient Egyptian and the Coptic languages, and some regard him as the founder of Egyptology. Kirchers work in geology included studies of volcanoes and fossils, Kircher also displayed a keen interest in technology and mechanical inventions, inventions attributed to him include a magnetic clock, various automatons and the first megaphone. The invention of the lantern is often misattributed to Kircher. A scientific star in his day, towards the end of his life he was eclipsed by the rationalism of René Descartes, in the late 20th century, however, the aesthetic qualities of his work again began to be appreciated. One modern scholar, Alan Cutler, described Kircher as a giant among seventeenth-century scholars, another scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as the last Renaissance man. Kircher was born on 2 May in either 1601 or 1602 in Geisa, Buchonia, near Fulda, currently Hesse, from his birthplace he took the epithets Bucho, Buchonius and Fuldensis which he sometimes added to his name. He attended the Jesuit College in Fulda from 1614 to 1618, the youngest of nine children, Kircher studied volcanoes owing to his passion for rocks and eruptions. He was taught Hebrew by a rabbi in addition to his studies at school and he studied philosophy and theology at Paderborn, but fled to Cologne in 1622 to escape advancing Protestant forces. On the journey, he escaped death after falling through the ice crossing the frozen Rhine — one of several occasions on which his life was endangered. Later, traveling to Heiligenstadt, he was caught and nearly hanged by a party of Protestant soldiers, from 1622 to 1624 Kircher was sent to begin his regency period in Koblenz as a teacher. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1628 and became professor of ethics and mathematics at the University of Würzburg, beginning in 1628, he also began to show an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1631, while still at Würzburg, Kircher allegedly had a vision of a bright light. This was the year that Kircher published his first book, in 1633 he was called to Vienna by the emperor to succeed Kepler as Mathematician to the Habsburg court. On the intervention of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, the order was rescinded and he was sent instead to Rome to continue with his scholarly work, on the way, his ship was blown off course and he arrived in Rome before he knew of the changed decision